[MD] The End of Faith - Spirituality

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
The absence of your denial speaks volumes about your socialist leanings.

[Arlo]
Boring, insipid talk-radio rhetoric. What do you want me to deny? I 
am aiming for precision.

[Platt]
To humor you I'll play along with your idiotic questions.

[Arlo]
They are only "idiotic" because you can't answer them directly and 
honestly without betraying the obvious ridiculous foundations you 
build you assertions on. Which is why you don't answer them. As 
evidenced below.

[To Arlo's question]
Are the "poor" better or worse off because of public libraries? 
Would  the"poor" be better off if we shut down all the public 
libraries and converted them to Barnes and Nobles?

[Platt]
Without individuals choosing to write books and publishers choosing 
to print them, there would be no libraries, public or otherwise.

[Arlo]
Typical. No answer at all. I repeat, are the poor better or worse of 
because of public libraries? Would the poor be better off if we 
replaced public libraries with a "free market" alternative? How so?

[Arlo's question]
Let's go back to the fabled pre-socialist era of the early 20th 
century. Give me some measures you would use to show me how 
the  poor" were better off then? Better income? Better health care? 
Better education? Contrast the workers in the Pullman camps to the 
factory workers at GM today. Tell me in what ways the 
Pullman  laborers were "better off"?

[Platt]
Without individuals choosing to build profit-making businesses and 
drug companies choosing to invent new medicines, there would be no 
improvements in income or health care.

[Arlo]
No answer. Were workers better off then? By what measures?

[Platt]
(Arguably, people were better educated in the early 20th century.)

[Arlo]
By what measures?

[Arlo had asked]
Since we favor the "free market", do you think people would be better 
off with a privatized police force than a socialized one? Why? Why is 
a socialized police force better than a private one?

[Platt]
Without individuals choosing to become policemen, there would be no 
police force, public or private.

[Arlo]
Just more evasion. Go figure. Can you answer the question?

[Platt]
The more individuals are free to choose, the more dynamic and wealthy 
the society becomes, as Pirsig suggests and America demonstrates.

[Arlo]
So public libraries, socialized police and public roadways are bad? 
Contrast the "pre-socialist" era of America with today. Give me some 
facts to back up your claims that people were better off.

What America demonstrates, as does Europe, is that finding a good 
balance between freedom and order is what is best. That finding a 
good balance between "collectivization" and "free marketry" is what is best.

[Platt]
One of the ills of SOM is the bias towards thinking about groups and 
systems while  ignoring the individuals in it. That bias spills over 
into academe and politics, helping to account for the appeal of 
socialism and Arlo's propensity.

[Arlo]
Platt forgets that the other bias in SOM is bias towards thinking 
about individuals while ignoring the value of collectivization. Once 
again you've proven that you can only think it ridiculous, 
nonsensical absolutist terms, as your ongoing moronic attempts to 
paint me as the enemy of the individual, only demonstrates. As I've 
stressed from day way, you are the only one here trapped in this 
ridiculous nonsense of "individual v. collective".

If you ever think you can actually answer any of my questions above, 
feel free to do so. In the meantime, since all you continue to offer 
is moronic talk-radio bullshit, there is hardly any point, is there?